Free Private Accompanist for Learning Choral Parts

On the prairie frontier, choral singers often went out to the woodshed to practice chorus parts on their own. Outside of rehearsal, they had no accompanist to help them learn the printed score. There is now a website called The Silvis Woodshed, which contains hundreds of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files available for free downloading to your (or your choir members') computers.

Unlike some other sites that make MIDI files of complete works available for purchase, these files consist of the different voice parts of choral works -- and not the accompaniments. They are designed to sound the individual parts to help singers learn or memorize their voice lines. Because these files do not contain accompaniment and do not reproduce the total ensemble, they are considered legal to download and use under the Fair Use provisions of the copyright law. Among the hundreds of works at the site are masterworks by master composers and many minor and obscure works. The site also contains frequently performed works of twentieth century composers, including Benjamin Britten, John Ness Beck, Leonard Bernstein, Paul Manz, Natalie Sleeth, Rene Clausen, and John Rutter, to name a few.

Many home and office computers already have a MIDI player loaded and ready to use, but if you need one to play these files, there is a link on The Silvis Woodshed page to purchase an excellent program called Sweet MIDI Player.